Soup

January is soup month and a great reason for those of who live in colder climates like us (think Canada cold) to eat more soup. A healthy and hearty offering, this Chicken Tortilla Soup came together quickly on a Friday night, topped with delicious crisp tortilla strips that my kids could not stop eating out of the bowl, fresh avocado and grated old cheddar cheese. I may be a little bias but it was so delicious. Even my daughter filled her bowl twice.

Our goal this month is to re-make and/or recreate some of our soup recipes, while adding more to our stash of comfort foods. With so many amazing and healthy soups out there, it’s a good way to perhaps be a little healthier.

Chicken Tortilla Soup

As you read through the recipe deciding whether or not you have the ingredients to make the soup, you will notice a spice called Epazote. Epazote is an herb used in Mexican cooking to flavour moles, soups, and other dishes. It is popular cooked with beans and said to help relieve some of the bean causing “symptoms” we all know so well. This herb is known to have a pungent, petroleum-like odor. Like cilantro you either like it or you don’t, there is no in-between. People describe the taste to be like a curious combination of turpentine, mint, citrus, pine, oregano, anise, and mustard greens.

We tasted the soup before we added in the Epazote and again after. There was no turpentine smell or taste but there was a slightly noticeable flavour enhancer we picked up on. We have been told not to use to much of this herb as it could over power the dish. A few light pinches in our soup equaling about 1/4 tsp is what we started with.

Chicken Tortilla Soup

PRO TIPS:

use a store bought rotisserie chicken

substitute regular dried oregano for Mexican oregano

no epazote, no problem

do not care for cilantro, use flat leaf parsley instead

like it spicy? add more of the chipotle in adobo, carefully

sub in leftover turkey, for the chicken

the crunchy tortillas added to the top of the soup, stay crunchy – no soggy bits unless kept in soup overnight

pressed for time, simmer away for 30 minutes and you will be good to go

We highly recommend you give this tasty soup a try. It got four thumbs up here.

Back in the 90’s Robson Street was Vancouver’s outdoor shopping mall with great restaurants and cafes as well as all kinds of high end stores to tickle your fancy in. It was a seen and be seen place to be. In fact it still is. Walking up and down Robson every time I go to Vancouver to visit brings back vivid memories of the time spent living there. At one point I lived in the West End so merely a hop skip and jump over to Robson Street to take it all in.

I was a part time Gapper back in those days, and my time working at The Gap on Robson was extremely adventurous, it was an experience. I ate out a lot (single in the city) and one of my favourite little stops was a little hole in the wall cafe on Robson Street. This eclectic little place served up the best soup I’d ever had and I would visit whenever a cold struck. This soup was Pho, pronounced Fuh. Pho is not the same as Ramen, which is darker and richer cooked entirely from pork bones, but rather traditionally made from beef and scented with star anise, cinnamon and ginger.

Pho is an anytime soup but most comforting in the Fall and Winter on those days you need a bowl that hugs you back and some comfort food. The most important component to a Pho is the broth. Enjoyed in a restaurant, Pho broth is typically simmered for hours on end resulting in a delicious tasting broth with many levels of flavour. For this Roasted Turkey Pho Broth I can honestly say my turkey stock simmered for 4- 5 hours. Was left to sit for several hours while it cooled and then further cooled in the fridge with all it’s aromatics and turkey bones for up to two days. The result, the best tasting turkey stock I’ve ever made.

There was only one thing to do at this point, try to make a pho soup in stead of your basic turkey noodle soup to use up the last of the 15lb roast turkey. While shopping for ingredients for my turkey pho, I discovered Campbell’s offers a new product, Pho Broth. So I did what any virgin pho maker would do and bought a pack, you know just in case the turkey broth was lacking in flavour. After straining the turkey broth and getting 6 cups of intensely flavoured broth, I decided to add in the package of pho broth to make approximately 8 cups. I just knew it was going to be good.

This quick version of pho is layered with each ingredient giving you the full restaurant experience.

Create your Pho Bowl

When you make this recipe you must get your soup bowl ready and start with the cooked noodles, gingerly placing on the bottom of the bowl. Ladle in your hot broth gently moving around the noodles with chopsticks to ensure they are not sticking together. The next layer is the turkey breast, add a good heaping spoonful. At this point you add whatever toppings you prefer that are available. We eat family style here so it makes sense for each person to customize their pho.

The first time I made this soup was sometime in 2013. It was a craving soup end of the week kind of day and I had very little vegetables left to play with. There it sat on the third shelf in the refrigerator staring back at me. There was no way around it – it was to be cauliflower soup or nothing. Admittedly I’ve never made cauliflower soup before but I sure love roasted and grilled cauliflower.I turned on the oven, hacked up the cauliflower, tossed in some garlic cloves for good luck, a little oil and off it went into the oven. What happened next was outstanding. I made Roasted Cauliflower soup, and I loved it.

You have to agree, roasting your garlic with the cauliflower is pretty clever, and imparts great flavour. I wanted the soup again, so I took it a step further this time, and tossed in a couple shallots to roast them up to. I do not add cream to this soup but blitz the cauliflower, garlic and shallots like crazy to keep it healthier.

The roasting party in my oven became soup on my stove. I like it when this happens. A few extra minutes to simmer on the stove with thyme and bay leaves, then it gets blitzed, strained and is ready to serve. Those who can not eat dairy will appreciate this soup is dairy free. If you are gluten free do not add croutons. I quickly made some cumin croutons for this soup, but you can use any croutons you have on hand. I made croutons so often I will need to share the recipe. Simple flavours make it delicious.

It was clean out my pantry day and I have had a butternut squash rolling around on the floor for about 2 months. My mom used to roast butternut squash and serve it simple with shaved parmesan, salt & cracked pepper. Oh and a maybe just a lil butter drizzle on top.

While roasting this bad boy, I started sorting through two shelves of canned items. Way at the back of one shelf I found a jar of Tamarind Chutney. I love tamarind and practically inhale it whenever we go for Indian food. Only thing is this jar had well expired. You know what, this did not deter me. I opened the jar and sampled. About three tablespoons of samples later I decided it was safe to eat. And a little spicy however on the taste buds.

To make this soup is easy. Rough chop your onion, carrots and garlic as it’s all going to get pureed anyways. Toss them in with some olive oil and cook until just lightly softened. You could add chopped uncooked squash in with the onions and carrots if you don’t feel like roasting your squash first. The roasting however did impart a great flavour.

Important to note while the tamarind chutney is spicy, well when you eat it right out of the jar, it is not overpowering in the soup but yet adds a subtle hint of heat and incredible depth of flavour. We have a 16 yr old German Student living with us right now who does not like spicy food. She gave me two thumbs up on and loved the soup indicating it was not very spicy at all. We added in some more tamarind chutney right into our soup bowls. Seriously could inhale that stuff and it’s my new favourite condiment. Watch for it in everything (ha ha just kidding).

I am excited to be participating in November 2013 challenge for the Canadian Food Project, The Canadian Harvest. The Canadian Food Project Experience was started on June 7, 2013 by Valerie Lugonja of A Canadian Foodie. It’s a compilation of Canadian Food Bloggers who are committed to sharing their time, unique regional Canadian food experiences, and recipes. We hope to bring clarity to our Canadian Culinary identity by sharing food that is important to us as Canadians.

With a short growing season, September and October bring us a cornucopia of tomatoes. My own little crop of tomatoes are grown in container plants on my deck. This year we harvested quite a number of lovely little tomato specimens and true to form in Calgary, we get early frost in September, so it becomes a race against time to get everything harvested. Since many were picked green, they had to be left on the counter to ripen. And ripen they did.

Growing up in the 1970’s, my parents garden was full of blooming edibles. The greenhouse was home to many varieties of tomatoes and cucumbers. I believe it was an art growing such delicacies and my mom had mastered it. Every Summer and Fall we would have an abundance of fresh produce to enjoy. Many of the tomatoes were canned and stored for the winter. A couple of my favourite things to eat was tomatoes picked fresh from the garden and my mom’s canned tomatoes that had been warmed in a pot, mixed in with cooked macaroni and finished with Parmesan and salt. One thing she never did get into was making tomato soup, until I was in my twenties and living in Vancouver. So for us, as children, tomato soup consisted of Old Fashioned Tomato, Basil and Rice Soup, from a can. Long live Campbell’s.

Tomatoes from Wanda’s Garden

Compelled and determined to bring my own rug rats up on home made soups, I’ve been trying different versions of tomato soups over the years. One memorable epic fail was squash and tomato…it did not work together. This year we had our own red and yellow garden tomatoes to use and a friend’s red tomatoes from her garden that she shared with us.

When I think of an Albertan or Prairie Harvest, I think beyond wheat, mustard, grains and canola oil…I think about all the love and care that goes into the Farms and the crops the farmers grow and protect from damaging weather and hail, only to harvest and bring to market. A true labour of love.

As we entered November I needed to use up what was left of our tomato harvest and so yet again, I made tomato soup. This time it worked.

Kids activity nights require quick meals. I had some leftover roast beef (sliced thin) from a recent roast dinner and had been wanting to do a Vietnamese Beef style Pho (or my rendition of it) for awhile. Of course I decided to make the soup on an activity night and did not have the time or ingredients to make it the way a Pho should be made. So I went with what I had and came up with this delicious tasting Beef Noodle Soup.

You can use any leftover roast (cut thin), or steak. The vermicelli noodles can be the rice kind or regular pasta version. Precooked noodles makes it easy to assemble this dish quickly. Play around with seasonings if you wish until you find a flavour combination you like. A squeeze of lime and some bean sprouts would have been equally delicious to add before serving.

As the rain commeth down, and Fall under our toes, I am feeling more like soup these days. I did not grow up eating home made soups, or a lot of soup in general, but I want my kids to have home made soups in their lives, and so I continue to try out different soups to tempt their little palates. It’s a comfort thing.

This is a tried and true one that is quick, easy, tasty and the kids can help roll the meat balls. I like to make the meatballs very small as small (little bites) seems to be more appealing at times for my kids. You change change up the meat to chicken if you don’t have turkey, same with the stock. It’s all good.

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About Me

Food and lifestyle blogger since 2006. A wahm who writes about events, wine, family adventures, recipes and eating out in Calgary, Alberta and beyond.

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Join me on my adventures both in and out of the kitchen! We travel in search of new experiences, go on adventures both near and far and cook in the kitchen creating new recipes, re-create recipes from previous generations, and seek out crazy food combinations yet sticking true to comfort food and simple recipes.